A 10-year-old schoolgirl wants ‘disgraceful’ gambling advertising banned because they are a bad influence on young people.
Mikayla Krivohlavek wrote to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews sharing her concerns after seeing numerous ads while watching TV with her family.
‘It is horrible to encourage gambling to young ages and in fact to any age at all,’ she began, after regularly seeing three gambling ads in one commercial break.
Mikayla Krivohlavek, 10, wrote to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews asking for ‘disgraceful’ gambling advertising to be banned because they are a bad influence on young people
The letter Mikayla wrote to Premier Andrews outlining her concerns about gambling advertising
‘From starting at young age till you are an adult advertising influences you to start gambling and betting and wasting your money thinking you are going to make more money, when you really loose (sic) more money then (sic) you will win.’
Mikayla said she couldn’t believe how easy it was to open an online betting account with her real name and parents’ credit card, just by faking her age.
She was also shocked by the dozens of sports she could bet on, along with many other wagers, and it was ‘disgraceful’ family TV was interrupted with ads for it.
The Bellarine Christian College said her friends also thought gambling was wrong and were sick of being bombarded with ads.
Mikayla Krivohlavek wrote the letter after seeing numerous ads while watching TV with her family, including her eight-year-old brother
Mikayla said she couldn’t believe how easy it was to open an online betting account with her real name and parents’ credit card, just by faking her age.
Mikayla said families were destroyed when problem gamblers lost money they needed for food, clothes, and school fees.
‘I think that it is the government’s responsibility to look after families and not destroy them,’ she wrote, saying ads should at least be banned until after 10pm.
The young girl also didn’t understand why cigarette advertising was banned but gambling had few restrictions, despite it being ‘just as bad’.
Mikayla told 3AW radio she had not yet received a response from Mr Andrews, but hoped it would convince him to take action.